No major problems so far, and all of my games are running very smoothly. However, whenever I am gaming, I am having trouble with my processor getting too hot (70 Deg C, that should be considered too hot correct?), while the rest of my system stays very cool (graphics card never breaks 40 deg C). I know the processor typically is one of the hottest items on a computer, but with my aftermarket cooling I thought it would be lower than that. Sometimes I feel the need to lower the graphics not because it is straining my graphics card or hiccuping, but because my CPU is getting too hot. I should mention that while idling it is at standard 30ish deg C temperatures.

I have my aftermarket fan on top of it, oriented to blow out the back grating, with Arctic Silver thermal paste beneath it. I applied just enough to cover the surface and tried to get all air bubbles out. Am I blowing this problem out of proportion or do I have something incorrectly wired? I don't want to shorten the life of my processor significantly right out of the box.

The Chassis fans that I have connected definitely speed up. I have them set on Turbo in the BIOS and watch their speeds with CPUID. I'm not sure how to tell if the actual Coolermaster CPU fan speeds up. I also feel the air coming out of the computer and it is typically very cool.

DDVX wrote:The Chassis fans that I have connected definitely speed up. I have them set on Turbo in the BIOS and watch their speeds with CPUID. I'm not sure how to tell if the actual Coolermaster CPU fan speeds up. I also feel the air coming out of the computer and it is typically very cool.

OK, so you've got decent case airflow then.

You don't have fan speed monitoring software installed for the CPU fan? You may want to try downloading a copy of SpeedFan...

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I have MS afterburner, my BIOS, and now Speedfan. How do I know which one has priority? By the way, I have a game running in the background, which is why the temps are a little higher.

EDIT: However, now that I have been playing Borderlands for a few, I can see that my graphics card is getting up to 51, which I wouldn't expect would be too ridiculously high but still higher than I thought.

I've also had experience with Intel chips running a bit too hot, given their low TDPs (65w). The CPUs in question are a Core i3-2100 and an i3-2120, both of which I built this year. Both are around 60C at IDLE (!), and at load they get higher than that. These aren't my computers so I really can't remember, but compared to my Phenom II (which has a 125w TDP), the i3 chips seemed a bit too hot. My Phenom II idles a around 32C and goes up to around 48C at load, so I don't know whether Intel simply bundles crappy coolers with their CPUs or Intel's thermal characteristics are hyped all the way up. Take note that my AMD PC doesn't have anything too fancy to cool it: just 2 fans blowing air out of the case and the stock CPU heatsink. Perhaps your best bet is to first make sure the CPU cooler is seated properly. If that doesn't work, perhaps you should get a better cooler and see how it works out.

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Check to see if your heatsink is making good contact with the cpu by looking at the paste spread pattern. Also make sure your CPU cooler fan is connected to the correct fan header......and physically feel the heatsink for looseness and temperature when it states it is at 70 c . The heatsink should be very warm if not hot to the touch.

I have 2 i3 2120 series chips and 60c at idle is way way too high. Both of mine with avc coolers"basically a slightly bigger intel cooler with a built on cpu intake tube" They both idle at 30c and at load do not even come near 60c they top off at 50 max and that is with the fans at 1200-1400rpms...they max around 5500 rpms and make a heck of a racket. I personally have not tried a push pin intel cooler on my pcs since they were both prebuilt with the heatsinks i currently have. I do have a intel cooler that came with my i3 2125 cpu and comparison it is slightly lighter them my current coolers. Plus my current coolers screw down.

Just to make sure on this, you say "I have my aftermarket fan on top of it, oriented to blow out the back grating," Is the fan on the CPU heatsink oriented to push air into the heatsink fins, or pull air through them? It should be placed and oriented to push air into the heatsink fins and then out the back of the case.

Watch this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSq_xbxsm7Q or other installation videos and redo the installation. If you are running at stock speed then 70 degrees Celsius while gaming with a CM 212 is def too high. Hope you didn't forget to take the plastic cover off or something. Maybe it left some glue or w/e

Direct heat transfer pipes need usually a bit more thermal interface material to close the gaps, watch a few videos on what is the most efficient application method for that kind of heatsink.

Last edited by Arclight on Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

+1 make sure you took the clear plastic film off the bottom of the heatsink. It's on there to prevent the base from getting scratched, but you DEFINETLY need to remove it before placing it on top of your CPU.

Hey guys, just got back around to checking the thread again. To be clear, my heatsink fan sucks open air from within the case through the heatsink and then out the back, as you said it should be. I did remove and reapply the thermal paste on the processor itself, but I'll check the bottom of the heatsink for plastic, as i don't remember taking any off (but I also inspected it before I installed it and don't remember there being any). I also will do a skin test under load to make sure the heatsink is actually absorbing the heat (and also will check the seating on top of the processor). I also double checked that my CPU fan is correctly connected to my motherboard CPU fan slot. I'll repeat back what I find from your suggestions. Thank all of you!

EDIT: I took off the Cooler Master this morning and the plastic was not on. I checked the video you guys linked to make sure I was installing it correctly and reattached it afterwards, making sure it was lined up with enough paste but not too much. The only thing I have left to do is to get it really hot again and feel the heatsink with my fan. Not sure what else to do. I have speedfan, MS afterburner, CPUID, and my BIOS all monitoring and setting fan speeds so I feel like I might get some interference between programs. The only other thing I can think of is to just manually set really high fan speeds to combat it.

EDIT 2: Also, how hot should I expect the heatsink to be? I upped the heat to around 55 Deg C for a couple minutes and it was not noticeably warm.

I reapplied thermal paste after looking more into it and applied less than I previously had. Since then, my average CPU temperature under heavy load is 50 Deg C, which is obviously much better. I didn't think I had been applying it too thick but apparently I was wrong. From what I can tell this is a reasonable temperature to play at without long term negative effects. Please tell me if I am wrong! And thank you everyone for the help.

50 degrees Celsius is pretty good under load, the 3570K Tcase is 67.4°C. If you want to improve it even more check out reviews for various thermal interface materials, there are some out there that can make a real difference (but not huge, 5 degrees is about as much as you could gain if you started off with a generic TIM, but that's still a good gain).

Also look into undervolting articles for that chip since it seems that it is able to undervolt a overclock a little at the same time.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

DDVX wrote:I reapplied thermal paste after looking more into it and applied less than I previously had. Since then, my average CPU temperature under heavy load is 50 Deg C, which is obviously much better. I didn't think I had been applying it too thick but apparently I was wrong. From what I can tell this is a reasonable temperature to play at without long term negative effects. Please tell me if I am wrong! And thank you everyone for the help.

Q: How much thermal past should I use?

A: You should almost make out the CPU lettering under it.

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